Irrelevant. Has nothing to do with piracy.

Does steam scan your system, to see what games you have installed? I would certainly hope not. How could it tell the difference between a hard copy of a game, (that doesn't require steam, but, IS available on steam) and a game you bought from them?

I just looked at it through my Task Manager. It's using up anywhere from 4-6 meg of my RAM, which is pretty tiny considering I have 8 gigs of it.

Why do I have to keep telling some PC gamers that when I purchase a physical boxed version of a PC version of a video game sold at brick and mortar retailer stores like Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, GameStop Target, and Wal-Mart or if I purchase a physical boxed version of a PC version of a video game from amazon.com that requires Steam for a activation. I not only have to be online on Steam to install that PC version of a video game, but once that PC version of a video game finishes installing and I switch Steam to offline mode and a update appears, even if that PC version of a video game is singleplayer only or has singleplayer and multiplayer and I'm playing singleplayer in offline mode. Steam will switch back to online mode no matter what to install that PC version of a video games patch.

Don't think they can enforce paid mods without steam so probably not

That is complete BS. There have been at least a couple of occasions now that I purposely went online and was surprised to find that there was an update to one of my games waiting for me. Not once did Steam interrupt me while offline and force me to install the update. If you're going to complain about something, at least tell the truth instead of making things up to try and prove your point. You only end up looking like an idiot by doing so.

Go ahead believe me if you want to believe me. Don't believe me if you don't want to believe me. There have been some PC gamers who said they have had this bug on Steam like me.

I will continue to fight against AAA PC versions of video games being sold exclusively on Steam or requiring a Steam activation or a Steam key. I will fight for PC versions of AAA video games to be sold 100% Digital Rights Management (DRM) free on gog.com and for physical boxed versions of the PC versions of video games sold at brick and mortar retailer stores to also be sold 100% Digital Rights Management (DRM) free.

I will never stand down being against AAA PC versions of video games being sold exclusively on Steam.

Fact is gog.com has 70+ million PC gamer customers. Right now there are like 8 AAA PC versions of video games being sold on gog.com and about 9 AAA video game publishing companies of which 1 new one appeared on gog.com at the beginning of 2015 and that is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Here are the 7 AAA video game publishing companies now selling their video games 100% Digital Rights Management (DRM) free on gog.com.

#1. Activision

#2. Electronic Arts (EA)

#3 SQUARE-ENIX and Eidos Montreal

#4. Ubisoft.

#5. Disney Interactive

#6. Lucasarts

#7. Deep Silver

#8. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

#9. Paradox Interactive if you consider Paradox Interactive a AAA video game publishing company on the PC gaming market.

Not so; the NV installer will http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/Install_loop.gif. That was the very first Tick off I got from my Collector's edition.

Also, unless using a laptop, the Steam subscriber will have a time hauling their game rig into town or over to a friend's house the first time Steam hicups on startup, and demands to go online in order to continue working. Offline mode is intended for trips on the train, or brief stints away from a network... They don't want it to work independently of their catalog.

Yeah so? That's just part of the activation sequence. Once the installation is done, you never need to use the internet for that game again.

Funny, but I played New Vegas for at least two years without any sort of internet connection at all and never had a hiccup, or had to "call home". Even now that I've had regular internet access for the last couple of years, I can leave it in offline mode perpetually without ever being forced to go online. Not once has what you're describing occurred to me in the past 5 years or so that I've been using the service. You're just another one who's making things up to try a prove a point I guess.

This is your experience. The fact that you didn't encounter a bug doesn't mean bugs don't exist. Steam's offline mode used to be notoriously unreliable (it seems to be better now). I played Skyrim offline for a year and had all sorts of issues with it, the most common was Steam refusing to launch at all until I went online first and switched to offline mode from there.

I totally assume that it does, and not just games.

Yeah so... It means that you purchased a standalone product from a company, and cannot install it without permission from a 3rd party; and can lose it on the whim of that third party; and cannot actually use the product without the 3rd party agreeing, and then tracking your activities in the product.
Steam is symbiotic sure, but I'd call it far more of a parasite than a beneficial aid.

** Imagine if you had to get permission to use your bank credit or debit card... or checks. Imagine if you bought food at the market and had to call the company and them check your daily caloric intake before giving you permission to eat the product.

*** Imagine... if Microsoft added a feature to Windows 10+ that required their permission to install any third party application or game, with them able to refuse on a per person basis.
(As in... "Our records show that you have small kids in the house; so permission is denied to install any rated M game", or anything they decide they find objectionable.)
Would anyone accept that? (Does anyone think there is a difference with Steam? Of course it's not that far gone yet... yet.)

Curious that I've had flawless results in at least 5 years of using Steam, yet you encountered various problems in just a year and a half. Even though the software is identical in both cases. It sounds to me like the issues were with your system, and not the Steam client itself.

I have had tonnes of issues with steam in offline mode. It has gotten better in the last year that it works about 70% of the time. Prior to that it worked at best 25% of the time.

Not just with my system. Google it, hundreds of people experienced the same problem.
If Steam was forced to close prematurely, either by your deliberate action or because it crashed or because Windows didn't wait for the process to end before turning off, it didn't shut down the cache properly and tried to repair it the next time you launched it. This required going online, otherwise you got the "can't connect" message. IIRC this problem was fixed sometime in 2012. You can blame my OS, sure. But if your application doesn't work in case of a sudden power cut or because of a relatively common problem with Windows, you shouldn't advertise an offline mode. And knowing that Valve did finally fix it on their side (or at least claimed so), it clearly was a Steam bug.

I'd love to have a non-steam version. The thing is convenient in many regards, but adds an extra layer of nonsense the rest of the time. Cant count how many times I've tried to launch a script extender without having connected to steam first, only for it to have a hissy fit till I stop and log in.

Well if as you say it was fixed then, it's rather a moot complaint. That's kind of like complaining about Windows 7 because of something that happened when you were using Windows 98. I've certainly never encountered that issue, Steam has worked flawlessly for me at least 5 years now. I was very skeptical about using the service myself at first, and held off on buying Civilization 5 because it required Steam. But after using it all this time, since buying Fallout New Vegas, I have no complaints at all. I now have several games in my library and haven't had any problems with any of them. It's proven to be a very convenient and reliable tool for both playing and purchasing games, and hasn't glitched on me even once in all that time.

I used to be anti steam. But when i think of all the times i got my game home only to find the key missing, or the disc had a crack in it because the previous owner had tried to have six with it. it does cut that hassle out. My only gripe with digital gaming is having a proper manual.

Steam as Spyware? I would suspect we would have heard something on that front if that were the case. At least, I would like to think so.

I missed that part. I'd say it's time you got yourself a new tin foil hat. You've just lost all credibility in my view by those comments, so I think I'll just ignore you from now on.

Isn't it always like that, until suddenly realized? The problem is not what is onerous ~now~, but what comes of it later once this becomes completely normal and expected; a regular part of every day computer use. So easy to lose; to give up digital rights; very difficult to get them back.

I think it's a feature of the forum software to block members, but I've never used myself. One would think it could make the thread 'Swiss Cheesed', with posts replying to unlisted comments.

That is true for any EULA, regardless of Publisher or whether it′s a hardcopy or not.

more accurately would be ~100 megs. But that′s still less than Origin uses for example. Which usually uses up around 130 - 150megs.

That′s ram usage of steam after a fresh start:

Bootstrapper ~65megs

Service ~3megs

2x Webhelper ~9megs combined

There have always been bugs with offline mode. However most of the time its due to a user being online whilst trying to start steam in offline mode. I mentioned before that irregardless of launchmethod, with an active connection, steam will still phone home, especially with steamguard active. That can easily lead to offline mode bugging the hell out. I had that happen myself btw, but it was a long time ago.

If the installer enforces you to go online, than thats the installers fault and not steams. I installed HL2 completely offline. I installed Darksiders completely offline. I installed Skyrim completely offline. I installed Cliffs of Dover completely offline. I only had to go online to activate them, but not during the installation process. If you however meant the steam and not the game installer, again, that′s actually the publishers fault for not including the full installer for steam on the disc.

Judging from your post I′ll assume you were online? If so, read my reply to Nicho. But yes, Steams offline mode will bug out from time to time. I had it happen to me once a long time ago.

I don't see Steam as DRM; I see it as a library for my games.

Guess I'm a glass half full kind of guy.

The only Steam disc I have, is the NV Collectors edition, and that one's installer went into an endless loop when there was no network connection.

I despise Steam, but I honestly hope they do use Steam for this game. I can get over Steam's idiocy just to have custom music for Fallout 4. In NV, I used Steam's music player feature to easily listen to my own music while playing the game, and I plan to do the same with F4. Fallout 3 required me to get a buggy radio mod as I don't have a Steam version of it. I mean, I definitely love the retro-era music like that, but the same songs get a little old after the hundredth listen haha

Also I like to point out something to the people praising The Witcher 3 for having no DRM

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/245107/Witcher_III_owners_locked_out_on_Xbox_One.php

Your prime example of a company with no DRM just accidentally locked numerous Xbox One players...via a DRM malfunction.

Surely that's an Xbox problem, no?